The Origin of the Feces

Why are feces bad and roses good? Why do you call a person you don’t like a piece of shit? Is it simply because of the smell? The olfactory feelings elicited by shit are a complicated question since many people report not minding or even liking the smell of their own—which ostensibly reminds them of home. If you work in a sewage treatment plant do you get used to the smell of shit any more than people who work in abattoirs grow acclimated to the sight of staggering cows whose entrails lie in pools of blood? And what about proctologists and GI folks? Do they get used to shit in the way that gynecologists and urologists get used to the site of urethras or proctologists, assholes? Shit is generally considered to be ugly and not a subject for dinner conversation. Try talking about your doodies at the next cocktail party you're invited to and watch the group standing around you dissolve like an Alka Setzer. Talking about shit has its uses if you want to get away from a chatterbox who has taken you hostage. Shit is a liberator! Give them shit, not brioche. But are those things like roses, beaches at sunset, Paris that are generally considered to epitomize beauty really so great? Sure most people with a sensitive palette would prefer to eat in a three star Michelin restaurant than to eat shit as Pasolini’s characters are forced to do in Salo. But take a delicacy like fois gras. It might not have the offensive odor but when it comes down to it your average pate looks just like a soft shit. And it goes back to the old adage about the sausage factory. You don’t want to see the torture that geese are put through to produce this tasty food. If you did you might not be so quick to extol its virtues in comparison to poo. It all goes back the Latin, sub feces aeternitatis, or looking at feces under the aspect of eternity.